This document reviews previous investigations and proposes research related to two topics in the processing of visual items. The first topic involves the representation of common objects in memory, particularly the use of visual and verbal representations in the processes of identifying, categorizing, and comparing those objects. The proposed experiments use reaction time in the context of recognition and comparison tasks to answer the following questions: (1) How are common objects visually represented in memory, both shortly after they are presented and, more abstractly, as general categories of visual information? (2) How are these visual representations utilized when common objects are named and compared? (3) How is prior experience with object categories reflected in subsequent categorizing and naming? (4) How is the form of the memorial representation influenced by task demands? The second topic of this research concerns the role of active construction in representing visual information. The nature of the visual system is such that a visual experience which appears to involve the perception of a unitary, integrated item is actually composed of fragmentary percepts. Current theories postulate a constructive process active in the perception of objects as wholes. This process is investigated in an experimental paradigm which requires subjects to compare separated stimulus components to unitary stimuli. In this context, visual synthesis, a hypothesized process, can be examined by directed manipulations.